Gender Equality, Policy Approaches, And Mainstreaming Tools

Understanding Equality and Equity

Equality refers to a particular state of the affair where all the people enjoy the same status in relation to certain respects. Equality can refer to concept pertaining to economic equality and health equality. It includes the equal opportunities and the obligations within the framework of a society. Social equity refers to the concept that deals with justice and fairness pertaining to social policy. Social equity is made use of in various contexts like education and the public administration (Mukhopadhyay 2016). The difference between equality and equity lie in the fact that equity is indicative of fair provision of the resources that is allocated to individuals. Equality on the other hand denotes the provision of the same resources being given to the people. It is indicative of state of being same in terms of status, rights and the opportunities. A particular domain of life that needs equalizing pertains to my workplace. In my workplace I have seen incidences of gender discrimination that deprives the workers of their rights. The female employees are not provided all the provisions and the opportunities and they are discriminated against in the organization. It has a detrimental effect on morale of the female employees and reduces their productivity in the organization (Staudt 2018). The women in the workplace earn less as compared to the men that discourages the female employees in Australia. Equality given to the women in the workplace can help in removing barriers that can ensure their equal participation in the organization. Equality being provided to the women can help them in enjoying the various professional positions like leaders, managers and the directors. Equal benefits given to the men and the female employees can increase their productivity in an organization that can pave the path for economic growth of the country. It can augment the performance of an organization and enhance ability of the company of attracting and retaining the employees. It can play an important role in enhancing the reputation of the organization in front of the rest of the world (Vickers 2015). Equality in the workplace can provide them with respect that can help the women in getting proper respect in the society. The equality given to the women employees can help the women in gaining respect that can help in protecting them from incidences of domestic violence. It can strengthen them that can help them in fighting the injustices prevailing in the society.

The Equal Treatment Perspective talks about providing the same status in society to the male and the female gender. The Women’s perspective is consistent with that of equal treatment perspective. They both talk about the rights of the women in the workplace and how the providing of equal opportunities can act to the benefit of all the workers in an organization (Alston 2014). The main argument that the author is making is that the perspectives are consistent with that of the strategy pertaining to mainstreaming. Women’s perspective talks about the denial of certain privileges that causes the women to lag behind in certain respects in the society. The equal treatment perspective talks about the women getting access to the resources that can make them a strength of the nation. It can help them in the aspect of decision-making that can provide them with a dignified position within the framework of a society. Both the perspectives talk about the right of the women of having control over body and the aspects of sexuality. Family planning is an important aspect that can prove to be helpful in empowering the women in the society. It can be said that equal treatment is meted out to women if they can decide number of children that they are going to have and intervals in between the births. There are crimes against women that are often ignored by the authorities. The women are not provided with the opportunity of being given access to the legal institution. I agree with the key argument of the author because I feel that the men in the society wanting to meting out proper treatment to the female can help the women in getting a dignified position in the society. The Woman’s perspective talks about the right of the women in every sphere of life and I think that  the men giving space and opportunities to the women can prove to be instrumental in safeguarding the position of women within the framework of the society. The men in the society wanting to provide equal treatment can help them in securing a strong position in society (Parpart 2014). The Women’s perspective focuses on their share of rights that they deserve for their just treatment in the society. The limitation pertaining to gender mainstreaming arises because of the ‘problematic’ male beliefs that places onus on that of individual men for overcoming the complex problems in the society. The limitation arises owing to the fact that the behaviour of the men deal with the agentic choices and it ignores research showing masculinity arising from the cultural antecedents (Bock 2015).

Policy Approaches to Gender Equality

The tool that have been chosen by me in relation to gender mainstreaming is Sida’s model that includes the three steps of Gender analysis, Identify How and by application of the approaches in relation to gender mainstreaming. The step of gender analysis has helped me in analysing the situation pertaining to gender equality within the ambit of a particular context. It helps in the identification of expected results pertaining to the gender equality (Mukhopadhyay 2014). Gender analysis has helped me in highlighting difference between that of men and the women. It is related to the concept of distribution of resources and the opportunities. Gender analysis has been conducted before that of intervention that is irrespective of any sector. The target group of Sida includes the boys, girls, men and the women. It helps in developing the responses that are suited to that of gender-based inequalities that helps in meeting needs of the various population groups. It helps in examining relationship between that of men and the women in the society. This tool has helped me in arriving at the step of “Identity how” that helps in identification of areas pertaining to collaboration. Gender strategy should be strategic in relation to country and it focuses on the aspect of long-term objectives. The approach choice should be on the basis of needs, demands and constraints of country (Khosla 2015). The gender strategy should be action-oriented and it should state clearly the actors that give rise to gender discrimination in the society. The other approaches that has helped me in relation to gender mainstreaming is the concept of integration along with targeting (Bacchi and Eveline 2015). Integration talks about the interventions that are crucial in relation to gender equality. The targeting of specific groups can solve issues related to gender mainstreaming. The approach of integration can help in application of gender perspective at the time of intervention that can be useful in the approach pertaining to mainstreaming. The components of gender equality should have an impact on the interventions and it should be capable of generation of results. This tool box can help in focussing on a particular arena that can contribute to that of long-term goal pertaining to gender equality. The targeting can help in strengthening the partners and dialogue can act as a natural component that can help in the process of financing of programmes (Jost,  Ferdous and Spicer 2014). The movements in relation to the rights of the women and the organisations can act as valuable partners pertaining to dialogue that can help in advancing the cause of gender mainstreaming.

The definition of the concept of gender mainstreaming is vague that makes it difficult for the actors to grasp the implications. The campaigners pertaining to gender mainstreaming have framed strategies that can persuade the decision makers for their acceptance. They have made use of the strategy pertaining to “selling” that can act as a useful means that are pursued by the policy makers. It emphasizes on gains in relation to “efficiency” instead of equality that are derived from that of introduction pertaining to gender. The effect of the strategy framing process led to the adopting of “integrationist” approach in relation to gender mainstreaming that helps in subverting innovative meaning in relation to strategy (Le Masson 2016). The integrationist approach helps in the introduction of gender perspective into the various policy paradigms without being questioned. It ignores the potential that can transform the existing institutional along with organizational process. Strength of integrationist approach lie in the fact that it talks about the role pertaining to gender experts in the formulation of policy. It focusses on tea specs of bureaucratic process along with danger in relation to “rhetorical entrapment”. Another approach in relation to gender mainstreaming is the “agenda setting” approach. It can help in transforming and reorienting the policy paradigms by the changing of structures in relation to decision-making. The approach of “agenda setting” prioritizes the gender objectives among the competing issues (Tiessen 2015). It can help in the reorientation of that of mainstream political agenda by the rearticulating of the policy ends. This approach emphasizes on reorientation of nature pertaining to mainstream. The approach of agenda setting recognises the voices of the women with the help of the consultation process. The risks can however undermine solidarity across the various groups. Gender mainstreaming has been a failure because the world leaders have failed in recognising the rights of the women. Progress pertaining to gender mainstreaming has been slow however it can be said the improvements have been made in the arena of reducing that of maternal mortality and increasing participation of women in the workforce (Staudt 2018). The failure of gender mainstreaming is owing to the fact that violence against that of the women is still prevalent across the world. There are obstacles in relation to active participation of women in various spheres of public along with private life. The women in the society do not occupy position in various areas like governance, leadership and technology.

References:

Alston, M., 2014, November. Gender mainstreaming and climate change. In Women’s Studies International Forum (Vol. 47, pp. 287-294). Pergamon.

Bacchi, C. and Eveline, J., 2015. Mainstreaming politics: Gendering practices and feminist theory (p. 368). University of Adelaide Press.

Bock, B.B., 2015. Gender mainstreaming and rural development policy; the trivialisation of rural gender issues. Gender, Place & Culture, 22(5), pp.731-745.

Jost, C., Ferdous, N. and Spicer, T.D., 2014. Gender and inclusion toolbox: Participatory research in climate change and agriculture.

Khosla, R., 2015. Addressing Gender Concerns in India’ s Urban Renewal Mission (No. id: 7450).

Le Masson, V., 2016. Gender and resilience: from theory to practice. BRACED Working Paper, London: Overseas Development Institute.

Mukhopadhyay, M., 2014. Mainstreaming gender or reconstituting the mainstream? Gender knowledge in development. Journal of International Development, 26(3), pp.356-367.

Mukhopadhyay, M., 2016. Mainstreaming gender or “streaming” gender away: feminists marooned in the development business. In The Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Development (pp. 77-91). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Parpart, J.L., 2014. Exploring the transformative potential of gender mainstreaming in international development institutions. Journal of International Development, 26(3), pp.382-395.

Staudt, K., 2018. Gender mainstreaming: Conceptual links to institutional machineries. In Mainstreaming gender, democratizing the state?. Manchester University Press.

Tiessen, R., 2015. Gender essentialism in Canadian foreign aid commitments to women, peace, and security. International Journal, 70(1), pp.84-100.

Vickers, J., 2015. Can We Change How Political Science Thinks?“Gender Mainstreaming” in a Resistant Discipline: Presidential Address delivered to the Canadian Political Science Association, Ottawa, June 2, 2015. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique, 48(4), pp.747-770.